Tyshon Pickett’s 6 steals illustrated the defense’s excellent activity. Xzavier Taylor registered one of his best games (5 points, 5 rebounds), and Jordan Prosser (6 points, 1 block) was strong off the bench. The bigs really took away the Drake inside game.

Backcourt: A

The beauty of Walt Lemon’s career-high 31 points is he didn’t force shots. And when he did throw up some that elicited groans, they went in. Ka’Darryl Bell defended well but still needs to be more careful (3 turnovers).

Bench: B

Good contributions by Prosser and Omari Grier (8 points). But the starters carried the day.

Overall: A

This is the way this Bradley team needs to play every game. Defend and rebound smartly and with every ounce of their being, take care of the ball, make free throws and score more than they give up.-- Grades by Dave Reynolds

The Bradley senior scored a career-high 31 points, including the Braves' final 14 points, as BU snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 68-57 Missouri Valley Conference victory over Drake.

Not only did Lemon score, but he keyed perhaps the Braves' strongest defensive effort of the season, limiting the sizzling Bulldogs to 19 points under their season average and ending the visitors' four-game winning streak.

"Coach (Geno Ford) says all the time, 'Look in the mirror and evaluate yourself,'" Lemon said. "I've been doing a lot of that. I came back into my game and was more confident and believing in myself and not worrying about everything else. I was putting too much pressure on myself."

Indeed, during the skid, Lemon shot just 36 percent from the field, averaging just 13 points and committing 4.4 turnovers per game.

His game Saturday was much more under control, but the Braves' active defense (10 steals) afforded him more transition opportunities. Lemon used a pull-up jumper more rather than bull to the basket and he turned the ball over just once.

"Walt was fantastic," Ford said. "He made a couple high-degree-of-difficulty shots, but when you get it going, the basket gets bigger. Walt played with really good pace. We tried to give him more freedom in transition because we haven't shot the ball well. Low pace is bad for him because it takes away what he does best."

Bradley (6-9) stormed to a 12-0 lead in the first five minutes and following a Lemon 3-point play at 13:10 held a 19-2 advantage. The Braves matched that 17-point bulge, 24-7, at 9:40 before Drake began to edge back into the game.

Led by reserve senior Aaron Hawley, who scored a career-high 27 points, the Bulldogs pulled within 34-28 at halftime and cut it to 34-30 after Hawley's jumper opened the second half.

"I was proud of our guys," said Drake coach Ray Giacoletti. "We could've gotten beat by 30 tonight. Bradley was much more aggressive defensively from the get-go. It's a credit to them with their backs against the wall that they came out swinging. We fought our way back to six by halftime but couldn't quite get over the hump. "

Lemon made sure of that, scoring seven consecutive points to push the Braves' early second-half lead to 41-30. It was the beginning of a phenomenal second-half shooting performance by the Braves, whose 70.6 percent shooting (12-for-17) was the best in one half since three years ago against the Bulldogs.

"It was all mindset tonight with the whole team," said Ford. "We've had a lot of good practices that haven't carried over. After Wednesday's debacle (the 80-46 loss at UNI), we watched film (Thursday) and I threw 'em out without starting practice. They held a players-only meeting and did some honest self-evaluation. I don't know what was said and I don't want to know. The important thing is they took some ownership."

Page 2 of 2 - Tyshon Pickett, who had eight points and six steals, said the meeting was necessary.

"Everybody was frustrated with the losing streak and had a little beef," he said. "We all had our say. We talked about playing as a team. It showed tonight. The meeting was special for us."

There were still anxious moments down the stretch. Bradley built a 54-42 lead midway through the period before turning over four of its next five possessions, allowing Drake to slice the deficit to eight twice.

But each time, Lemon responded with a big basket — the first a long 3-pointer from the top of the key and the second a jumper from above the left elbow.

The anxiety of the paid crowd of 6,465 wasn't eased, though, until Lemon's burst down the lane and ferocious dunk capped the scoring with 33 seconds left. Finally, the Bradley faithful stood and applauded the effort of a team many had left for dead.

"We did everything the right way tonight," Ford said. "That's the best defense we've shown in a long time. Our identity tonight was defensively flowing to the ball.

"We should've won the last two home games. We're the same guys, but the mentality was so much better going into this game. We feel much more cohesive now. Hopefully we can build on that when there's some adversity, which will happen."

Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or at dreynolds@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @davereynolds2.